To think that this is a swear word

[Pigsmummy]

Twat.

My husband is adamant that it isn't a swear word and it might just be "midly offensive".

It came in conversation just now as last week I asked his Brother not to say it in front of our 16 month old and his brother didn't think that it was an offensive word.

I do not want my child saying this word or other swear/offensive words.

You know typing c or c** is exactlythe same as typing cunt - symbols representing a word.
C only works if people see it and don't know what it means.
So c is just twee nonsense. It's the same, exactly, as cunt.

Bloody hell, pissing about and bugger off are fairly common round here - tbh I doubt the teens at school would be badly reprimanded like they would for fuck etc.

I remember the list when I worked in radio of words that should never ever ever be said. Top was cunt. Second was motherfucker.

For me, more sweary than 'bugger' 'crap' or 'bloody', but less offensive than 'fuck' or 'shit'.

I also think twat as in, "I got kicked in the twat", sounds more offensive than "you're a twat". Not sure why.

Pregnantberry - I think because then you are associating the word twat with genitalia as opposed to using it as a generic twit style word? It clearly has two uses and meanings from the posts here.

Forgot about crap. Not sure crap is swearing anymore is it? Though I still wouldn't want my kids saying it.

We need someone to join a stricter forum and try out the sensors :-D though if they're covering their arses for regional offence it would be filtered out. They filter arsenal dont they? And Scunthorpe?!

It also clearly has two meanings per the dictionary too - certainly in the Oxford English dictionary at any rate.

I'm in the south east and use it the same as twit.

I never knew it could mean cunt until I was on mn.

Central Scotland here, and have always just vaguely thought of twat as a variant if twit. No way would I class it alongside cunt! (Odd sentence...)

*of

I grew up in the south west and had my mouth washed out with soap and water for saying bugger when I was 8!
Twat is a bad word for kids and I wouldn't even use cunt now in front of my parents!

Interesting it has more than one definition.

Another one in the NW and it's up there with one of the worst swear words you could use.

My Scottish friends use it and consider it a mild swear word, but then I have friends in London who use the word c**t, rather than the word 'mate'.

We say 'bloody' quite a lot in the NW and my Scottish friends think it's quite rude.

Southerncomforts I use 'knackered' a lot but my mother thinks it's very rude; she says it means 'castrated'! I've no idea if thats' true

Aelfrith, I think your mum's a bit confused. It comes from the fact that old, tired and worn out horses went to the knackers yard to be killed. It does not mean castrated.

In the NE and i can honestly say i always saw it on the level with idiot or fool , until about 3 or 4 years ago . I still see it as i did before but dont use it very often for fear of upsetting folk who believe it a very bad word .

I'd probably avoid it around children, but then I have 4yo who shouts 'bloody eejuts' at traffic jams occasionally so I probably don't qualify to advise.

I'm a Londoner and was brought up not to swear at all (nor blaspheme) I don't consider twat particularly sweary (probably about the same level as wanker) nor do I associate the word in any way with my genitals. To me it is not an alternative to cunt but a slightly ruder idiot term.

When my children were small I was fairly careful with avoiding anything vaguely sweary (including shit, crap etc - we adopted 'pants' as our generic swear replacement for a fair few years). Now they are teenagers I don't bother so much.

On a par with prat here, Scotland! Not nice but not really sweary

Scotland too, not really sweary, unless prefaced with fucking.....
Fanny used quite a bit too, but wouldn't regard it as on the same level as cunt either.

I'm Scottish too and it's definitely swearing! So is knackered. Knackers are balls.

Knackered is not swearing!! It may be a word people don't like, for what ever reason but it's not swearing.

Anyway, my fav swear just now is balderdash!

My Aunty lives here in Orkney - it was not a swearword for us up home.....

Yes!! My friend is from Twatt!

when I first heard this (prob late teens) I just thought it was a punchier version of 'twit', which is how I used it - I didn't find out until years later that it meant the same as cunt. I've got a pretty good potty mouth (not around DD, I should point out!) and I would only use cunt rarely (if I was calling someone a cunt, they'd really have to be awful), whereas I use twat more frequently - not as bad as a cunt, but more than a twit. I'm from London.

Knackered? That's not swearing!